Hidden Kitchen Organization

What I love most about having this blog is that it keeps me motivated to work on all my projects around the house. I also love finding ideas and inspiration from all of your blogs and I hope my blog does the same for you!

Lately I have really been working on organizing the unseen areas of our home (cupboards, drawers, closets, etc.). Today I'll share the progress I have made in our unseen kitchen spaces.


1. 
First up is the space beneath the kitchen sink.

Before

After

This is a space that gets used all throughout the day. It's where we keep our trash, along with cleaners, soaps and dish gloves.
I started by cleaning out the cupboard and getting rid of any empty bottles or unneeded items.

Next I put down some cute contact paper I picked up at the dollar store. I love that contact paper can make the normally ugly space under the sink pretty!

It was sometimes hard to find what I was looking for because the cupboard is so deep and dark so I needed a way to easily see everything. I had an extra Antonius wire basket left over from when I organized my hall closet that was the perfect solution! It holds everything I need and can slide out like a drawer, so even the things in the back are easily accessible.

 I also added a 3M Command hook to the inside of one of the doors to hang my dish gloves.

2.
In our kitchen we have very limited drawer space. There is one huge drawer and 4 tiny drawers. I have come to really like my giant everything drawer and I like it even more now! It holds every cooking utensil I have plus all of our silverware. Making sure everything has a specific place has been the key to keeping this drawer efficient. Again, I used the same contact paper from the dollar store along with a few wire containers also from the dollar store.

3. 
I have finally figured out how to keep a junk drawer organized! So what's the secret? Don't treat it like a "junk" drawer! Instead of it being a catchall be more thoughtful about it. Before I stick anything in there I think to myself "Is this really the best, most efficient place for this item?" and it really has worked! Of course my husband will throw just about anything in there but it's nothing I can't handle. If I happen to see something that doesn't belong I take it out right away. It has been great being able to find a clothes pin or pair of scissors so easily!













4.
Next is a simple one. I like to go through the mail as soon as it comes in the house. Most of it goes straight into the recycling bin but what about the rest? Here is our handy place to keep mail from cluttering up counter space.

5.
Lastly, we have some organized upper cabinets.

Keeping our canned food organized was always hard because the cabinet is so deep and I could only see what was in the very front.  I found these can organizers for a buck each (there are two in there), they make every can visible so I can easily see what we have. We keep the bulk of our canned food in a food storage room in the basement, so the kitchen cabinets don't get too cluttered.

Our spice cupboard had the same problem as the canned food but since the spices are so much smaller than the cans, I needed a different solution.

Now, don't laugh (Okay, I guess you can laugh) but I have been using a few spaghetti boxes to raise the spices. It actually has been working out perfectly!

















As for everything else in the cabinet, like with the junk drawer, it all has a specific place. It's easier than you'd think to just put the salt or whatever you used, back in the same place. I love opening an organized cupboard everyday and I never would have thought that it would be so easy to keep it this neat!




The more spaces I organize the more I realize how easy it is  to keep it that way.  Going the extra mile to make the space pretty is just more to motivate you to keep it nice and neat.

Like always, I'd love to hear any tips you have found for keeping your kitchen organized and efficient!


-Chloe